Knights Hope To Taac '1' On

The Ucf Baseball Team's 24-game Winning Streak Is Not As Important As The Taac Stretch Run.

April 14, 1995|By Javier Solano of The Sentinel Staff

Everything has been falling in place for the University of Central Florida during its 24-game winning streak, but it all still could fall apart if the Knights aren't successful in Trans America Athletic Conference play.

UCF (35-8 overall, 16-5 TAAC) plays host to Samford (19-6, 9-9) at 7 tonight to start a three-game series. The Knights, ranked 13th in Division I by Baseball America, have two more losses than TAAC leader Florida International (37-7, 15-3) and are a game ahead of rival Stetson (26-15, 15-6).

Stetson is at home tonight against Georgia State (12-22, 5-13) and still could ruin Central Florida's aspirations for a conference title and NCAA playoff berth.

The TAAC Tournament winner earns an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. If Stetson wins it, either UCF or FIU, ranked 12th by Collegiate Baseball, still could get an at-large berth, but maybe not both of them.

FIU swept a three-game series from the Knights before the streak, and that may weigh heavily with the selection committee if it decides to pick just one. However, the Golden Panthers are worried that their record could be devalued because they played just 10 road games.

The question is, as the playoff race unfolds over the final four weeks of the regular season, have the Knights started too soon?

''Baseball is such a fickle game,'' said Stetson coach Pete Dunn, whose Hatters put together last year's longest winning streak at 17 games in March but were 0-2 at the TAAC Tournament in May.

''You know you're going to lose sooner or later,'' Dunn said. ''I know Jay (Bergman, UCF coach) knows that. You hope you win the rest of your games through the playoffs, but that's probably not going to happen. You just hope you don't go into a tailspin.''

Bergman already has talked to his team about the danger of a tailspin once the winning streak ends.

''We all know the streak cannot last forever,'' Bergman said. ''When it does end we still will keep playing as hard as we can. And it is that effort which produces victories, so I believe we will start winning again.''

The top four TAAC teams advance to the TAAC Tournament May 11-13 at the site of the regular-season champion.

Nothing is decided yet, but the Knights continue to attract attention and admiration.

''It's incredible,'' Dunn said of UCF's streak. ''I'm very, very impressed with what Jay has done down there. He's done it on the road, he's done it against good teams, he's won close ballgames - he's done it all.''